A&E: Behind the Scene

Nov. 22, 2013

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Not quite 'Home Alone'

Des Moines Metro Opera founding director Robert Larsen has come out of semi-retirement to stage-direct “Amahl and the Night Visitors,” Dec. 6 and 7 at Hoyt Sherman Place, four years after his last directing turn at the company’s summer festival in Indianola. Why? In his words: It’s “one of the world’s perfect pieces of art.”

The new Amahl is Pierce Mansfield, 11, a sixth-grader at Merrill Middle School. He’ll be joined by various stars from the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Los Angeles Opera, Glimmerglass Opera and others, under the baton of DMMO Musical Director David Neely.

The production is dedicated to longtime DMMO supporter and former American Equity CEO Wendy Waugaman, who died of cancer in June 2012.

Building boom

Area architects, bakers and chefs are putting the finishing touches on entries in the Gingerbread Grandeur display, which opens Tuesday and remains through Dec. 19 at Salisbury House & Gardens. Visitors can bid on the edible real estate in a silent auction or simply vote for their favorites. (Last year’s prize went to Zombie Burger’s quaint little “Night of the Living Bread.”)

There are gingerbread workshops for the public (Dec. 3, 7, 8), plus a decorating showdown among local celebritries Van Harden and Bonnie Lucas of WHO radio, Sabrina Ahmed of WOI-TV, Eric Hanson of KCCI-TV, Ed Wilson of WHO-TV, Dan Wardell of IPTV, Colleen Kelly of Star 102.5 radio, Michele Beschen of the multimedia company Simply Michele, Drew Holmes of the Urbandale Hy-Vee and the odds-on favorites: Register illustrator Mark Marturello and yours truly.

Andy and Roy

The Des Moines Art Center is sewing up plans for a new traveling exhibition about the collaborative friendship between Andy Warhol (1928-1987) and fashion designer Roy Halston Frowick (1932-1990), who grew up in Des Moines. “Warhol & Halston: Silver & Suede” will showcase paintings, works on paper, and clothes, starting in September 2014 at the Art Center and then on to the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh (Warhol’s hometown) and a national tour.